Skies of Arcadia Legends

"A solid game that can't quite sail with the upper echelon of RPGs"

Skies of Arcadia: Legends is actually an enhanced version of Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast. But since the Dreamcast failed, not a whole lot of people got to play it. Fortunately, it was remade and improved for the GameCube and is a good addition to the GameCube's lacking library of RPGs. Unfortunately, this game is still relatively cult and it's sales were not even good enough to stimulate this game being released on the PS2. Its obscurity does not detract from its greatness though.

Storyline/Characters: The storyline to this game is simple, yet engaging. You start off as Vyse, the optimistic pirate who would never give up and thinks nothing is impossible. He is a member of the Blue rogues, which are not exactly traditional pirates. The Blue Rogues do indeed steal things but they steal it for the poor and the helpless. Kind of like Robin Hood. You also start off with long time female friend and fellow Blue Rogue, Aika, the loud, slightly annoying fun girl. Soon after that, you meet Fina, the quiet, mellow, mysterious good girl. You'll soon encounter a grumpy old pirate, a friendly prince and a wild gunner.

Your main focus of the game though is trying to stop the evil Valuan Empire from collecting the six crystals. Certain doom awaits the world if you don't stop the Valuan empire from reaching their goal. The Valuan empire is technically ruled by a power hungry empress but the real villains behind the scenes are the leader of the armada, Galician and his mysterious right hand man, Ramirez. Galcian wants more than the empress wants and is merely manipulating the empire into his own devious goals. Fortunately for the world of Arcadia, Vyse is here to save the world! The storyline has a few nice plot twists, it is easy to understand and it keeps you hooked. The plot doesn't advance that rapidly at first but like most games, the reality of the situation is revealed and it only enhances it. The storyline is great. The characters are not that great though. Honestly, I didn't really have a strong liking towards and of the characters you meet in the game. I did not feel any of them really developed and some of them just got plain irritating. The characters aren't exactly memorable and do not really do anything to make them stand out. Some characters just seem completely pointless to the storyline. But the good storyline is enough to nullify this for the most part. 7/10

Game Play: I personally found the game play to be pretty good overall. You'll often find complaints about the game play being too slow. This is not exactly false, but the pace of the game play was not super slow. The battle system is completely turn based and is quite simple to learn. You enter your commands for your characters (Attack, item, magic etc) and your opponents will too. Like several other RPGs, the fastest characters will strike first. To be perfectly honest, the game play is not original but it suffices.

One of the aspects of the game play is the S-Moves. These are otherwise known as Super moves. These special moves are learned via moonberries, items that can be found in chests, from defeating bosses or even beating regular enemies. As you my have suspected, better moves take more moonberries. At the beginning of each turn you get a certain amount of spirit points and the spirit points are used for S-Moves and to use magic spells. Attacking or using an item does not reduce spirit points. Each character has their own individual S-Moves which can go a wide variety of things from dishing out some hefty damage to removing any negative status affects on your party. The better s-moves naturally cost more spirit points. Like I mentioned earlier, magic spells also take spirit points. However, they also take an additional MP. Each spell only takes one MP, regardless of which spell is being used.

Nothing interesting so far about Skies of Arcadia's game play, right? Well, Skies of Arcadia introduces one kick-ass spin on RPG game play. Ship Battles. The ship battles do have one major flaw however, they take far too long and you can't skip the animation. But they are still fun. Ship Battles are somewhat similar to the regular battles but they are much more epic. You can use your magic still and you can also attack but since you are involved with a ship battle, you will use cannons and torpedoes and what not. While the ship battles are not as common as regular battles and you will usually fight off against other ships, it is possible to fight against other things too such as a giant squid which I thought was really neat.

Skies of Arcadia has a nice little life bar on your opponents so you'll know when they are about to die. I found this to be a nice addition because I hated using up a turn and MP to scan an enemy in the final fantasy series. A small complaint I have about the magic is that it is seldom used. In ship battles, it gets used a lot but it's practically worthless in regular battles. The last complaint I have about the game play is the encounter rate. It's ridiculous and frustrating. It's especially bad when sailing your ship. Apparently it was much worse in the Dreamcast version. I shiver at that thought. The game play isn't exactly unique but it does make sure it delivers the most important aspect; how fun it is. 8/10

Sound: The voice acting to this game can get well, annoying. But hey, it's harder than you might think to find some decent voice acting. The swords and cannons sound more like something from a cartoon than what you might experience in real life but it honestly isn't that big of a deal. 4/5

Music: The music is not bad by any means but is not memorable so a fair compromise would be that it is “good”. I don't have much to say here, the battle music themes are good, the dungeon music is pretty good and so are the towns and cities. 4/5

Graphics: Skies of Arcadia is actually a very visually appealing game. Now, keep in mind this was a Dreamcast game and not originally GameCube game but even with this in mind, the game's graphics are awesome. Whether it's journeying through the forest, avoiding lava, sailing the skies of Arcadia or walking upside down on a lunar temple, the graphics will keep you memorized. The attacks are beautifully done and the characters are quite recognizable both in and out of battle. I was very impressed with the graphics. 5/5

Difficulty: Skies of Arcadia isn't really all that challenging but it's not quite as easy as many of the other RPGs out there, at least for me. I know I personally struggled a bit at the end with the ship battles but this was primarily my own fault as I didn't upgrade my ship very well. Some of the earlier bosses can be difficult, especially if you have yet to master the game play. Ship battles are generally tougher than regular battles because you often have to use your head and make strategic decisions. The decisions could include attacking a certain part of your opponent's ship or body, flying high, getting behind the enemy, speeding up or avoiding getting behind the enemy. If you use your moonberries wisely and level up adequately, the game shouldn't pose that much of a challenge. 4/5

Replay Value: Replay value is actually a pretty important factor in games. Skies of Arcadia has okay replay value. The game is very long which is a good thing and it can keep you hooked, factors that make it worthwhile when replaying game. You'll more than likely play this game more than once and the experience is rarely as good the second time around but that doesn't mean it is not still fun. The music, story and humor will keep you liking this game. 9/10

Recap:

Storyline/Characters: 7/10
Game Play: 8/10
Sound: 4/5
Music: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Difficulty: 4/5
Replay Value: 9/10

Overall: 41/50 = 8.2 = 82% = B

Pros:

Pretty good game play
Humorous
Pretty good soundtrack
Great graphics
Good replay value

Cons:

Bad encounter rate
Not exactly original
Not up to par with other RPGs
Characters aren't very memorable
In regular battles, magic is practically worthless

Skies of Arcadia is a great addition to the GameCube's lacking library of RPGs. Skies of Arcadia often has a rivalry with Tales of Symphonia over the dominant GameCube RPG. Unfortunately for Skies of Arcadia, I do feel that Tales of Symphonia was much better. This doesn't take away from Skies of arcadia that much as it's still a great game that needs more publicity and needs to be played by anyone who like RPGs. Unfortunately, due it's pitiful sales, Skies of Arcadia for the PlayStation 2 was canned and the odds of seeing another remake, yet alone a sequel, is not very likely. However, Skies of Arcadia proves that just because it is not mainstream doesn't mean it is not good. It is an enjoyable experience and overall a solid game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/05